Turner st. near French St.

[camgarsky4]

MB -- do you know if the circa 1892 Turner St. mentioned in the police report below is the same as today's Turner St. that is 4-5 blocks from Maplecroft?

Witness statement pg 17 Doherty report:
Wednesday 17. Called on Maurice Libby, from whom we got an old brown and white plaid apron
stained with blood. He found it in the yard adjoining his shop on Turner street. This we left in the office.

[mbhenty]

.

Yes, same Turner street.

Now here is more information than you ever need.

The first map below is from 1895. On the map where it says "French Street", (click to make BIG) if you look just above the letters ST you can see Maplecrot, just above the "S" and a little to the left of it. To the right of Maplecorft is the Kenny House which Lizzie had moved to build her garage. All this is between Belmont and Underwood and French. Like I said, more information than you need.

But on all three maps you can see Turner street... where it is and where it's always been.

The first map is 1895, the second is google today, and the third is from 1877. Turner street was always there and still there today. It runs between Barnaby and Davol, Known as RT138 today. The one block long portion of Turner Street, between Barnaby and North Main is one of the steepest hills in the city... which there are many since old Fall River is basically built on a hill.

The photo below is of Turner Street.

Got it

[camgarsky4]

Thanks!

MB -- not sure (besides being an author) your career entailed, but you would have been a fantastic teacher/educator!

How near the "Hill" were the most fabulous homes in Fall River back in the 1890/1900's? I don't have Parallel Lives with me, so don't recall the family names associated with some of the mansion photos in that book.

[mbhenty]

Thanks for the kind words, camgarsky4.

Near-by Turner street is North Main and Davol Streets. Looking at the map below, Davol ran along the waterfront and North Main Street a block or two East east of it. (Maplecroft at the heart of the Highland area just about six block up from Main... all up hill.)



Parallel to Main Street is Barnaby Street and one block up hill from that is June Street and that is where the "Money Crowd" built their large homes. One street up from June is Rock Street where many of the more affluent and prominent citizens lived, including those named Brayton and Borden. This included most of the terrain and streets you see in the map below, with Rock Street the hub of the Highland area and most of Fall River's money.

On the map where you see Charlton Hospital, a couple hundred feet from Maplecroft, was the Brayton Estate where Mr. Brayton entertained the likes of Winston Churchill. Today the only sign that it ever existed is the Brayton granite wall which borders the hospital property.

As for my occupation I worked for Verizon for thirty years. I started just about the time they began buying up the old rundown single family mansions on the hill and chopping them up into apartments back in the late sixties and early seventies. I did wiring in many of those homes on the hill. In my senior years I purchased the Davenport House next door to Maplecroft, and known as the Henry House in some publications.

[mbhenty]

For years I tried changing the name from Henry to Davenport. I don't think Ms Harriet Henry deserves her name on a building since she owned it for such a short time. The only reason it's know as the The Henry House is because she sold it to Lizzie. Henry lived on the second floor and purchased the house from the bank after Mrs. Davenport died. About a year later she sold it to Lizzie. Before that the house was believed to have been built by James Davenport back in 1879. James Davenport was the ninth mayor of Fall River. The Davenports lived a couple of blocks west and probably had the house as income property. But shortly after James died his wife moved into the Davenport house and lived there for over twenty five years. So it should be known by its builder and wife who lived there until she died and not Henry who owned for such a short time.

Below is the placard I built for the house. The Preservation Society offered me one but I reused them since they refused to help me when they were installing a business across the street from my home. The only help I was asking from them was a letter verifying that the neighborhood was of historical significance and that a business should not go into a residential neighborhood. Just a letter. That was all I asked. They refused. Historical properties are not a mission for them. Just a hobby with bias pursuits. Yet when a home for the disabled was about to move in next door to one of its members, they fought it and kept it out. You can tell I am still a little sore about it.

Once my fingers start typing, I don't stop....do I?

[camgarsky4]

MB -- what do you mean by "tried to change the name"? Do those houses have legal names? As owner can't you name it what you want?

[mbhenty]

Yes:

Well, the house really does not have a name. But when talking about 328 French Street, reference was always conveyed by calling the building the Henry House, such as it is in Rebello's book. It was alway known as the Henry House by those with historical insight.

I can see how the house gained its notoriety, since it has a connection to Lizzie. But Harriet Henry had no interest in owning the house and after she purchase it she sold it like a year later.

But the house was built by the Davenports and the Misses lived there for twenty five years. I thought that the house should have its proper name, after the builder or occupant who lived there for a quarter century. And after that said owner who was Mayor of Fall River. Thus anytime I talked or wrote about the house I referred to it as the Davenport House.

Just like 92 second street. At one time it had a placard on the side describing it as the Charles Trafton house, the man who had it built in 1845 and who lived there for twenty-seven years, before Borden purchased it. Some time after it became famous as a B&B the placard was taken down and a new one put up. Now it is referred to as the Andrew J. Borden house.

To me it will aways be the Charles Trafton House. But I suppose to the masses notoriety trumps primary ownership. Just a formality or minor point but important to an architecturally and historically minded Fall Riverite.


http://lizzieandrewborden.com/HatchetOn ... urder.html


.